Im Laufe der Brutsaison 2024 arbeitete das Romilan-Team – abseits der weiterlaufenden Feldarbeiten – alleweil an der Analyse der Daten zum Bruterfolg, den Flugmustern und der Habitatnutzung der Rotmilane in Hessen. Im Herbst werden wir auf verschiedenen Veranstaltungen unsere Ergebnisse vorstellen… Wir laden herzlich ein zu:
53. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Ökologie (GfÖ e.V.)
Becker, M. , Spatz, T., Rösner, S., Heuck. C., Thorn, S., Farwig, N. & D. G. Schabo (Vortrag): Red kites and wind power: Increasing the cut-in speeds of wind turbines can contribute to more effective protection of the species. [gfö conference 2024]
To reduce climate-changing CO2 emissions, more and more wind turbines have been built in open land and forests in recent decades Birds of prey, especially red kites (Milvus milvus), are particularly vulnerable to collisions with wind turbines due to their soaring behaviour. One promising approach to reducing the risk of collision is to use algorithms to regulate the operating times of wind turbines based on local weather conditions. To better tune these algorithms, we investigate how weather, land use type and season influence flight height and activity. To this end, we observed flight activities of 37 adult GPS-tagged red kites in different landscapes in Hesse, Germany, over a period of seven years – resulting in more than 582,800 location points from 127 individual years. Specifically, we analysed flight height and flight activity as a function of local environmental variables such as wind speed and land use – in the form of open land, forest and anthropogenic structures. We found a consistently high level of activity across the entire range of occurring wind speeds. Flight activity changed over the breeding season and over the course of the day However, local weather variables such as temperature, precipitation and wind speed were poor predictors of flight activity and altitude. Flight altitudes varied greatly between individuals and land use types, with most flights of approximately 62% occurring over open land. More than a quarter of the flight movements occurred at the height of the rotor swept areas of current wind turbines. One promising approach to mitigate the risk of collision is to increase the cut-in wind speeds of wind turbines. An increase in the currently recommended average cut-in wind speed of 2.2 m/s over open land and 2.-4 m/s over forest would be sufficient to eliminate 90% of all flight movements from the risk of collision with rotors of modern wind turbines in Hesse.
8. Hessische Landesnaturschutztagung HLNUG, Gießen
Becker, M. , Spatz, T., Rösner, S., Heuck. C., Thorn, S., Farwig, N. & D. G. Schabo (Poster): Red kites and wind power: Increasing the cut-in speeds of wind turbines can contribute to more effective protection of the species. [Lansdesnaturschutztagung 2024, pdf]
Hessens Wälder im Wandel – Veranstaltung des Lore-Steubing-Instituts (LSI)
Projektvorstellung: Rotmilanschutz und nachhaltiger Windenergieausbau in Hessen: Marcel Becker (Philipps-Universität Marburg) [Programm, pdf]
Publikation
Marcel Becker, T. Spatz, S. Rösner, C. Heuck, S. Thorn, N. Farwig und D.G. Schabo (in press): Rotmilane und Windkraft – Erhöhung der Einschaltwindgeschwindigkeiten von Windenergieanlagen kann zum effektiveren Schutz der Art beitragen.
